After the approval of the bill prohibiting U.S. funding for the transit railway passing through Armenia by the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, it’s up to President George Bush to confirm. According to the Washington-based Armenian National Committee of America, in early December both the Senate and the House of Representatives approved the “Reauthorization of the Export and Import Bank” bill, which states the clause prohibiting the bank to fund the construction of the transit railway passing through Armenia. The import and export bank is an American federal agency, which has especially financed the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan oil pipeline.
Executive director of the Armenian National Committee Aram Hambaryan hopes on behalf of all Armenian Americans that President Bush will sign the bill and legalize “the role that the U.S. has on Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s efforts to legalize the illegal blockade of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.”